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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Give Yourself Permission to Rest

The exhale is as important as the inhale. It takes both to make a complete breath cycle. Learning how to relax and let go is as important as the actions we take in life. Because so much of our western society focuses on achievement, it is often necessary to give ourselves permission to be still and let go, even if only for a few minutes.We can take a minute or two here and there during our busy day to close our eyes and breathe and be present, and we can give ourselves permission to relax our bodies when we lie down for a nap or for sleep. While the mind will continue to supply things to think about and process, we can give ourselves permission to relax our attention to these thoughts, and let them go by without needing to hold on and process them. We can relax our bodies deeper on each exhalation, and relax our attention too.

The idea of this post was to remind my friends to take a deep breath, close the eyes and rest. You'll be amazed how much can a few deep breaths do to relieve a tension and reduce the stress. I couldn't believe it, and now it's in my "arsenal" of tools when dealing with stress.